


Crashing into Water - Mer!Ed

by Rina_Ichigo



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:16:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26140258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rina_Ichigo/pseuds/Rina_Ichigo
Summary: During a mission given to him by Colonel Roy Mustang to inspect mysterious relics, young State Alchemist Edward Elric finds himself in a situation that places him in a predicament that he would have never thought was possible. Will he be able to hide his new secret from everyone else, including his brother? Or will he fail miserably, being sent to a lab for experiments and becoming a new form of entertainment.Mer!Ed
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

"Strange relics?" I question what I've just been told. 

"Yes. Considering all of the Murder cases going on in Central city at the moment, there aren't many officers readily available to go. And on top of that, the fuhrer wants a state alchemist to go, and you ended up being chosen." Colonel Mustang says, while sitting in his desk, looking cocky and his chin rests on his hands as his elbows were on the table with a smirk. Meanwhile a pile of probably unsigned papers sat on the desk beside him. 

I let out a sigh in annoyance. "Mustang, I have work to do! I had just gotten a lead for how to get Al's body back! I don't have time to go off and look at a couple old items that someone wants to know stuff about but can't do it themselves!" 

"What if I told you that it was on the way to where you're wanting to go?" 

I give Mustang a look. "Do you even know where you're going?" 

Mustang chuckles. "I overheard Alphonse telling Hawkeye earlier." He smirks as I sigh in annoyance. 

"Ok, fine. I'll do it. I only need to go in and look at them, right?" I ask. 

"And preferably make an estimate and their use, value, material, and age, yes." 

I stare at him for a moment. But then I nod, understanding what I'm going to have to do. "well.... I guess I'll see you later." 

Not waiting for a response, I turn around and walk out of the office, where my younger brother is waiting for me. "Hey Al." 

Alphonse gets up from where he was sitting and looks at me. "So what was that meeting about?" He asks. 

I sigh, and we both start walking towards the exit of Central Command. "So apparently we need to go to some island in order to look at some really old so called relics that no one knows how old they are." I explain to him. 

"Come on Brother, that doesn't sound too bad. We'll be able to get through that quickly and then get to that lead, right?" I look at Alphonse, who's looking down at me, his glowing hollow eyes showing specks of hope into them. 

I smile at him. "Hell yea, of course! We'll just have to run through that and get to that lead as soon as possible!" I say enthusiastically, trying to come across as pumped as possible. I'm honestly only a bit pumped for the lead though, not the mission. 

Getting out of Central Command, Alphonse and I make small talk as we make our way to the inn that we're staying at. One we get there, and to our rooms, and flop down onto one of the beds. 

"So I guess we leave first thing tomorrow, huh?" I hear Alphonse say from across the room. 

"Yea." I call back in reply and look at the time. 10:25pm. I should probably get some sleep for tomorrow if I wanna try and finish that mission and get to that lead in the one day. Taking my jackets off and getting under the covers, I close my eyes and fall asleep without much thought. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

I feel myself getting shaken by someone. "Brother, wake up." 

It's Alphonse. I wonder why he's waking me up, it's not like we're about to miss the train for a mission before the lead or someth....... 

Oh crap the mission! I slowly open my eyes, and look up at Alphonse. "What time is it?" I half grumble at him in my tiredness. 

Alphonse sighs in annoyance. "9:30. We have to leave at 10 if we wanna catch the next train!" 

I sit up quickly. "What do you mean next train?" I ask urgently, feeling like I'm not going to like what he's about to say next. 

"There was a train at about 7 this morning, but I couldn't wake you up for some reason. I knew there would be a train later in the morning anyway, so I left you to sleep." He explains. 

I send Alphonse a light glare. "You should've tried harder. Let's just catch this train." I say as I get out of bed, and start putting my jackets back on, also realizing that I fell asleep with my clothes on. 

Quickly eating breakfast and getting ready, we quickly check out of the inn and run to the train station, getting there just as the train arrived. We quickly hop onto the train and take our seats. 

"We're getting off at Hillsbury station, right brother?" Alphonse asks, sitting across from me, his metal body pretty much taking up the whole seat. 

"Right." I answer and I look out the window and at the city scenery as the train starts moving again and buildings and people pass us.   


The train is going for about 3 hours before we get to Hillsbury, including a few stops along the way. Alphonse and I get off of the train and I take a good look at our surroundings. Hillsbury looks like a small city, people bustling around, enjoying the sunny day, others running small shops near the train station. It had the feel of a small town, smaller buildings rather then larger ones you'd normally see in a city of any kind. I look at Alphonse, and we both leave the train station, beginning our search for that lake that island was in. 

Alphonse approaches an older lady walking through the streets. "Hello ma'm, you wouldn't happen to know how to get to a lake around here, would you?" 

She looks up at him kindly. "Which one? There are several around these parts." 

Alphonse looks at me for the name. I'm about to tell her when I realize a small problem. "Uhhhh.... Mustang never told me." 

"Brother!! You didn't ask about it either?" Alphonse thrown his hands up in annoyance. 

I start to defend myself. "I didn't think about it at the time!" 

"Well then how are we supposed to find the place we're looking for!" 

"I don't know! Keep asking people I guess?"   


Anyway, it takes us a while, actually a lot longer then I would've liked, but we eventually find our way to the lake, and find a way to get there, except for another small issue.... The boat was too small for Al to go on. 

"I guess you'll have to stay here Al." I tell him, slightly disappointed. 

Alphonse looks at me. "It can't really be helped, they don't have any bigger boats right now. They'll have then later though. If you're not back by a certain time, I could easily get my own boat and look for you." 

I nod in agreement. "That should work." I pause for a moment. "It's late enough, I should go." 

"Just stay safe, and be back before it gets dark, ok?" He says, sounding worried. 

I look at him, and nod before getting into my boat and pushing it away from shore with one of the paddles. It takes a moment, but I figure out how to use the paddles to move the boat and I paddle towards the island, which I can see in the nearish distance. The wind blows my hair around, sometimes in my face and over my eyes, and after several mouthfuls of hair, I finally get to the island, and I park my boat along the convenient beach along the shore. I pull the boat up onto the shore a bit so it doesn't float away on me. 

I turn and look into the island, starting to wonder how that actual fuck I'm going to find those damn relics, study them, and get back to Alphonse before dark. Well, I'm already here, so I might as well give it a shot. I walk into the forest of an island. Pushing tree branches and bushes out of my way, I walk into the seeming depths of the island, keeping an eye out for any of the relics. I'm almost glad that Alphonse stayed back, considering that this forest is to damn thick, and he'd probably end up stuck on the beach anyway. Atleast he'd be able to call someone if something went wrong. 

I'm not sure how long I was looking, but by the time I looked up at the sky, it was sunset. Oh lovely. I'm pretty sure I have no idea where the fuck I am, and I promised Alphonse that I would be back by dark. 

I turn and start walking back, trying to map out where I came from, and I find that I just kept getting more, and more lost the more I walked. The forest is getting darker, making it even harder to see, and it's getting dark fast. I have a feeling that if I take too much longer to get out of the forest, it's probably going to become pitch black in here. I continue walking, trying to find my way out, or atleast find a shore line. Before I know it, I can hardly see where I'm stepping, and I can only hope that I'm not about to step on something poisonous, or an animal, or a gian- 

My foot slips and I let out a scream as I fall into a giant hole, and I slide down a passageway into a dark area. I suddenly stop at the bottom, in a sitting up position and my back slightly sore from the sliding. I look around, not really being able to see anything, let alone how big the cavern is. I carefully turn around, and try to climb back up, however I find that it’s too steep to climb. I then clap my hands and press them on the ground, using alchemy to make almost a staircase to climb back up. A shiver goes down my spine as nothing happens. Maybe there’s another way out. 

Using my arms to feel any walls, I slowly get up off the ground and stand up. Surprisingly, I don’t feel any ceiling. I thought it was alot smaller. I start slowly walking into the cave, using my hands to feel any walls or anything so I didn’t crash into them. I slowly walk through, when suddenly I spot a soft light coming from an entrance somewhere. Or exit. It looks similar to moonlight. It just might be a way out. 

I slowly make my way over to the passage way, I almost trip on what seems like a small set of stairs leading up to the light. Slowly climbing the steps, I go through the doorway to see maybe the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. 

It was a large cavern. The ground was sprinkled with sand, and the walls had things hung from them. A round pool of water took up at least half of the cavern, some stones sat along the edges. There was also a hole in the ceiling, and the moonlight came in, reflecting off of the pool and lit up some of the walls in the cavern. 

Looking up at the opening in the ceiling, I decide to try to use my alchemy again, hoping that it would work. I clap my hands, and put them onto the ground, hoping to even be able to create something simple. But to my dismay, nothing happens. 

I decide to take a quick look at the relics, partly so that if I ever survive and get the fuck out of here, I won’t have Colonel Bastard chewing my ear off about not having a report on the relics, and getting stuck in a random cavern. Walking over to one of the relics, I carefully inspect one of them. It looks like it may be centuries old, is made out of stone, and it is so worn out that I can’t even make out any of the designs that are on it. A crystal is also embedded in the center. I move onto the next one, and find that it’s exactly the same, the only difference that it’s made out of steel. The next one is also the same, but made out of copper. 

I realize what I was supposed to be doing, and I glance at the pool, hoping that it will lead out of this place, and that I can get out of here. I just need to hope that my automail doesn’t weigh me down too much. I walk over to the pool, and try to look in the water, wondering if I could even try. Luckily, I spot a tunnel just under the surface of the water, which could be a way out. It’s risky. But I don’t see any other option. I sit down at the edge of the pool and dip my feet into the water. The water is cold, but it doesn’t feel too bad. I lower myself into the water, and almost immediately have to swim as hard as I can to keep my head above the water. Before I know it, I find myself in the center of the pool. 

I look up at the opening in the ceiling, and I almost see the moon move into the center of the opening, and the strangest thing starts to happen. The water starts to bubble like boiling water, and golden bubbles start to circle me, floating up towards the moon. The moon shines directly onto the pool, reflecting in every way possible, and making the crystals on the relics look like they’re glowing. I feel an odd energy that I can’t explain start to flow through my body, and I find myself looking around in awe, and mostly staring at the moon. 

Suddenly, all of the effects start to slow down, and eventually come to a stop. I look around for a moment, and everything looks like nothing had happened. But something seemed to have happened. My auto didn’t seem to be weighing me down as much as it was before, and I felt like I just had the best sleep ever, and all of my strength was restored. 

Looking around once more, I take a deep breath and I duck underwater. I start swimming towards the tunnel. The tunnel is alot longer than I thought it was, Taking me alot longer than I thought it would take to get through it. It is actually pretty big though, maybe big enough to fit 2 or 3 people at the same time. To my surprise, my automail didn’t seem to weigh me down too much, and even more to my surprise, I am for some reason having no trouble holding my breath while I'm here, completely underwater. 

It doesn’t take much longer before I see the exit of the tunnel, and to my luck reveals the lake. I should probably figure out where my boat is, and get back to Alphonse before he sends some rescue team after me. Poor Alphonse. He’s probably worried sick about me. 

Just as I’m about to swim along the shore to find my boat, I hear something, more like someone call through the dark night. 

“Brother! Where are you?” It’s Alphonse. 

I call back his name as loud as I can, shouting his name and that I’m here as loudly as possible so that he can find me. It doesn’t take long before I see the light of a flashlight shine at me. I quickly start swimming towards the light, hoping that it’s Alphonse. Turns out it was, and once I get to him, he pulls me out of the water, and onto the boat. 

“Where were you?! I was so worried!!” Alphonse angrily asks, probably not shouting because it’s the middle of the night. 

I decide to not say everything, I don’t think he’d believe me if I told him about the pool, and the bubbles, and all of that stuff. “I got lost and then I fell.” I say, not spilling all of the details. 

Luckily, Alphonse doesn’t question it. “Come on, let’s get you to sleep. I already booked us a room at an inn in town.” He sounds relieved. 

I realize something. “What about the boat I took to that island?” I ask. 

He sighs. “I brought it back to the person we rented it from once I found it. Then I started looking for you along the shoreline.” 

I let myself lean against the wall of the boat, suddenly exhausted. The feeling of the boat on the water feels really soothing and relaxing, and I can’t help but close my eyes and enjoy it. Before I know it, everything goes black. 

  



	2. Chapter 2

I open my eyes a little, and am greeted by sunlight flooding into them, making them hurt for a few minutes. Once my eyes got used to the light, I sit up in the bed and look around at my surroundings. I’m in a rustic feeling room that had two beds in it and a window along the side, as well as a couch against the wall. I’m obviously in an inn room, but I have no idea how I got here. 

“You fell asleep on the boat on our way back.” I look over and see Alphonse sitting on the other bed, looking at me. 

I guess that explains a few things. Alphonse probably carried me over to the inn that he mentioned while we were on the boat. I move to a sitting position on the side of the bed, and I ponder on what had happened last night. 

That cave, the relics, and moon, the floating bubbles, the water. It seemed like they were all related to each other in some way, but it didn’t seem to make sense how, no matter how I thought about it. Especially once I add in how I felt after the whole bubble thing, like how I felt while I was swimming through that tunnel. Nothing added up with each other, and it all seemed so confusing. 

“Are you ok?” Alphonse asks with concern, breaking my thoughts. 

I decide that it’s probably time for me to get up. “Yea, I’m fine. I’m just going to go have a shower before we leave for that lead.” I tell him, and he nods. 

I walk towards the bathroom, my head still slightly spinning from what happened last night. I walk in close the door, and decide to switch my thought process away from what happened for a moment. But I first get my clothes off, turn on the shower and step into it. The water feels amazing against my skin, and I find myself more able to think. 

The lead. That sounded like a good thing to think about. To be fair, I think that we’ve already stayed here way too long, along with missing that early morning train, and me kind of getting lost and into that whole situation that still didn’t make any sense. I very quickly have a hard time keeping my thoughts on the lead, as they keep going back to what happened last night one way or another. I’m probably just in a small state of shock. 

Suddenly, I feel the same energy as I did last night flow through my body, but this time at a stronger force. Golden bubbles start levitating around me, and suddenly I see my entire body turn into a softly glowing blue water. My entire body goes numb, and I have zero idea of what’s going on. All the feelings suddenly disappear, and I find myself just standing there, under the shower, feeling incredibly strange. Almost not human, but human at the same time. 

I start wobbling around back and forth, losing my balance as I suddenly fall over, almost crashing face first into the floor. I try to get back up, but my legs don’t respond the way that I want them to what so ever. I can’t split them apart; I can’t move then the way I want to move them. I use my arms to get my chest off of the ground. I wonder what the hell is going on. I make an attempt at rolling over onto my back, and once I actually manage to, I look down at my legs and stare in shock. 

Or, what should be my legs. Instead of legs, was a tail. A fish tail. Scales and fin included. The tail is an orange like gold colour, and it is definitely longer than my legs were. The fin at the bottom pressed against the wall, to throw that there. The upper half of my body was completely normal. Well, as far as I knew at least. 

I hear a knock at the door. “Brother, are you ok in there?” 

Oh shit. I can’t exactly let him see me like this, he’ll probably think I’m a chimera. I mean, I might be one, but I don’t think Chimeras randomly turn into stuff like this. 

“I’m fine.” I say, and I hear the metal footsteps as Alphonse walks away. 

Reaching up as far as I can, I turn off the shower, and I lay there, not knowing what to do. Quickly becoming bored, I randomly decide to grab a towel and start drying myself off. I’m not too sure what it would do though, considering that I’m suddenly part fish…. 

Drying myself off for a few minutes, I suddenly see myself turn into the same glowing blue water again, and I notice that I’m completely normal. And oddly enough completely dry. I quickly get up, and throw my clothes on, my mind even more cluttered and swirling with thoughts. I have absolutely no idea about what’s going on, let alone what’s happened to me. Was that a onetime thing? Or is that going to keep happening? What’s going on? 

I exit the bathroom, so lost in thought that I almost crash into Alphonse. “Sorry Al.” I mutter, only half of me really paying attention to the situation. 

“Are you ok? You seem out of it.” He sounds concerned. 

I look at him. “I’m fine, just thinking about something.” 

Alphonse doesn't seem to question it, but still seems concerned as he reaches for a grocery bag nearby, and pulls out a sandwich. “You should at least eat something, maybe that will help.” He passes me the sandwich. 

I gratefully take the sandwich and start eating it. It does help soothe my hunger, and I am thinking a bit more clearly than I was before. I ponder on what had happened to me in the bathroom, which honestly just made everything that much more confusing. Alphonse breaks my thoughts again. 

“Oh yea, I almost forgot to tell you. Apparently, something happened at the station last night, and they’re not letting anyone get on or off of the train until it’s fixed or something.” He explains. 

I frown. “How long until we can go?” 

Alphonse ponders on my question for a moment. “I don’t think until at least tomorrow.” 

I let out a sigh in annoyance, if only I hadn’t gotten lost and fallen down that hole, we would’ve already been on our way to that lead, and not stuck here, not being able to do anything towards getting our bodies back. But instead, we’re probably going to end up just lounging around in this damn inn room, doing nothing but worrying that our lead will disappear. 

Alphonse turns towards the door. “I’m going out to grab some stuff we might need. You wanna come?” 

I look over at Alphonse. “Nah, I’ll stay here. I’m still tired from last night.” I say as I sit on one of the beds. 

Alphonse nods in acknowledgment and leaves the room, leaving me alone, with pretty much nothing to do but think about what’s going on. The cavern with the artifacts, the pool of water that seemed to react to the moonlight, me being perfectly fine swimming through that tunnel and to the boat that Alphonse was on (I’m surprised he hasn’t asked me about it yet), and now me gaining a fish tail instead of legs in the shower. Nothing added up or made sense, but it all seemed to be connected somehow. Although I couldn’t see anyway it could all be connected. Maybe, I was hallucinating? Maybe something was in the water that made me hallucinate? It probably wouldn't explain the swimming through the tunnel, but maybe the bubbling in the pool and the tail. I guess there’s only one way to find out. 

I walk over to the bathroom, pick up a glass that sat on the counter, and filled it with water. Taking a deep breath, I poured the water onto my arm, almost accidentally pouring it all, the water getting spilled all over my legs and feet as well. I stand there for about 10 seconds, and nothing seems to happen. So, I guess it was just a hallucination. I sigh in relief and walk out of the bathroom, going to grab dry clothes before drying the bathroom floor. 

Everything seems to happen really fast, and I suddenly feel the energy again, and I turn into the glowing water, and then I fall onto my back, the impact knocking the air out of me. Sitting up, I stare at my lower half; the tail is back. As I stare at it in shock, I start to really notice what everything feels like. It doesn’t feel like my legs have been fused together, which would probably be what I would’ve expected it to feel like. It just feels like my legs are nonexistent, and that I just have a long limb coming off from my lower half instead. The weirdest part of it all would probably be the bottom fin, as I can completely feel it; its every movement against the floor, even the coolness of the floor against it. The upper half of my body feels completely normal, other that I may or may not feel like I’m stronger somehow. My hair is also down from its usual braid, falling along my back, and onto my shoulders. 

I cautiously reach out my left hand, and touch the tail. It feels smooth for the most part, I can feel the edges of the scales, but the scales themselves are smooth, and debatably slightly slimy. The scales feel cool against my skin, and my hand running against my tail feels oddly pleasant, and maybe a bit more natural then I would prefer. My hand goes up to my head as I ruffle my hair in thought, but I find myself left with another surprise. My hair in incredibly soft, and not knotted at all. I can’t help but fiddle and play with it for a few minutes. 

I take a look at the bottom fin again, wondering what that would feel like. How I would get the fin over to where I could reach it is the other question. Could I move it? Most animals move their tails. So..... could I move mine? I focus and make an attempt to move my tail, but nothing seems to happen, and I just kind of sit there for a moment, quickly giving up. 

I start freaking out. Although I’m probably hallucinating, It’s still really creepy. As far as I know, I can’t get up, and if I am hallucinating, I have no idea how I would explain this to Alphonse. In an attempt to calm myself down, I start looking around the room, reminding myself of my surroundings. 

2 beds, 1 dresser, 2 windows, 4 places to sit, 4 photos.... 

Wait. I’ve read books about hallucination, and I’m pretty sure it said that counting things is a lot harder when your hallucinating. My gut is telling me that everything I’m seeing is completely real, and I have no idea why. In my panic, I quicks grab a book that was for some reason thrown on the floor and open it, hoping that the pages aren’t in order. But they are. 

Oh shit. 

I start breathing heavily, and the world starts to spin around me. What is going on? I begin to feel weaker, and it’s not long before I can’t hold myself up anymore. Why is this happening to me? Black dots begin to cover my vision, and I’m freaking out, not wanting to pass out, scared that Alphonse would see me like this. 

The entire world suddenly goes dark. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

“Brother.... Brother please, wake up......” I hear Alphonse almost cry from beside me, sounding scared. 

I hear someone put their hand on Alphonse’s shoulder. “Calm down Alphonse. I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Oh great. When did that bastard get here? And why is he here? 

I’m surprisingly more comfortable then I thought I would be, at least to the point where I’m pretty sure I’m off of the floor. My head hurts, like I hit it off of something. The air smells vaguely of medication, and I have a feeling that I’m no longer in the inn room, but in a hospital. I slowly open my eyes, and judging by the look of the room, my suspicions of being in a hospital room have been confirmed. 

I look over at Alphonse. “I’m fine.” I just manage to say this. It feels like my voice of stuck in my throat and it comes out kind of scratchy. 

Alphonse look up and at me, and I can tell he’s happy, and relieved. Colonel Sarcasm Bastard also looks at me, but he’s a little more stern. 

“What the hell were you doing last night? I rush over because Alphonse told me that you were bleeding and passed out on the floor, and then he tells me that you got lost on that island!” He’s annoyed but he sounds concerned at the same time. 

I try to think back to what I last remember, except it’s kind of fuzzy, and I can’t help but still wonder and think that it was all a hallucination. But why was I bleeding? I move my left arm to try and sit up, and a gash catches my eye. I take a closer look, and see a shallow gash in my arm, and I can’t figure out when I got it. I go back to trying to sit up, and pain shoots through my left arm, and I look at it and see that the gash has been reopened, blood seeping out. I let out a sigh in annoyance. 

Mustang for some reason reaches over, and grabs my arm, and pulls it towards him, and looks closely at the gash, the look on his face becoming more and more surprised by the second. He looks completely shocked. 

“Fullmetal...” He trails off, as if he doesn’t know what to say. “When did your blood get sparkly?” The minute he says this, Alphonse leans over, looking at my arm in surprise as well. 

I pull my arm away from them. “What the hell are you talking abou....” I trail off as I look at my arm and I realize that they’re right. The blood seeping out from the gash is sparkly, looking like it’s been mixed in with a tub of glitter. “How....?” I mutter half to myself. 

“Are you sure you just got lost and fell?” Alphonse says, seeming to be trying to figure out what’s going on. 

I nod in reply, trying to wrap my head around everything myself. I really don’t think any of this is a hallucination anymore, but I have no idea how it could happen. I don’t even thing a chemical reaction could result into something like this. And now Mustang and Alphonse seeing it as well, almost confirms this whole thing as a reality, and not just some hallucination or something. 

Mustang sighs. “I would get someone to take a look at you to find out what’s wrong, but there’s the chance that you might be sent to a lab.” A shiver runs down my spine at that thought. Not something I’d like to get even close to happening. 

“We can try to figure it out!” Alphonse says enthusiastically. 

Mustang gets up from his spot. “I should head back to Central and report that everything is ok.” He then looks at me. “No need to report on the relics if you haven’t found them. Don’t bother continuing to look. Get your rest, and come straight to me at my office, I’ll help you with your lead from there.” He pauses for a moment, but then continues. “Edward... If you discover anything, tell us ok?” He doesn’t wait for my response, as he turns around and walks out of the room. 

“He actually convinced them to let him come here by the train once I told him you were hurt.” Alphonse says quietly one the Colonel was out of the room. 

I look at him. “Did you have to tell him?” I ask. “We could’ve figured this all out on our own.” 

Alphonse pauses for a moment, seeming tense. “I called him because the doctors told me that you might not live...” I hear his armor shake a little. “I thought you were attacked..” 

I put my hand on his shoulder. “I don’t think I was attacked. And come on Al. You know I wouldn’t die that easily!” I tell him reassuringly. 

He looks at me. “I know, but you never know when a doctor says it, you know?” 

I know where he’s coming from, but I can’t really think of anything to say other then, “I’m sorry...” 

We stay silent for a while, but before I know it, a doctor comes in and puts a bandage on my arm, and I’m discharged from the hospital. We both head back to the inn, not saying anything to each other, Alphonse breaking the silence when we get back to the room. “So, how did you get that gash on your arm?” 

I stop in my tracks. How did I get that gash? It wasn’t there before I passed out, and I don’t think I was doing anything, or near anything I would cause that sort of thing. I respond, my voice kind of shaky. “I don’t know...” I feel tense. 

“You don’t know?” I can tell that Alphonse is surprised. 

I shake I head. ”All I remember is passing out.” With a fish tail....... Did he see it? Or did I turn back by the time he walked into the room? Was the fishtail thing even real? Or was it fake? Something created by my imagination? A hallucination? A dream? No, the book proved the dream wrong, and how easily I could count stuff in the room suggested that I wasn’t hallucinating.... And with the sparkly blood... is that connected to the tail? That’s probably not a hallucination, both Alphonse and Mustang saw it in the hospital room. My head starts to get fuzzy again, and my vision begins to spin. I begin to lose my balance, and just as I start to fall over, I feel myself getting caught by someone. 

I look up and see Alphonse holding me on an angle, looking down at me. “You should rest Brother.” I hear him say as I feel myself get lifted off of the ground. I watch, my eyes half open as he takes me over to a bed, and places me on it. I feel sort of weak, or I at least can’t seem to bring myself to move too much. I lay there, my eyes half open, staring at the ceiling as it seemingly spun in endless circles. Every time I thought about what was going on, it seemed to get worse, but I can’t seem to help myself. Everything seemed way too confusing, illogical, fantasy, but in its own way it made me curious and wanting to know more. 

But maybe just trying to figure out more about the situation is the thing to do. Get over all of the shock, prove to myself that it’s real, and then figure out what to do from there. Yes, it sounds kinda silly, but more crazy and maybe even stupid, but I’m sure too sure what else to do at this point. The 2 times I touched water today were the 2 times that the tail appeared. Although I only have 2 cases in a row to go by, it sounds crazy, but maybe I’ll become this way every time I touch water? No way, that couldn't be right. It only happened twice, who’s to say that it would happen again? It might not, but even still, it might. 

I at least know that I need fresh air. I get up off of my bed, and slowly walk towards the door. Looking over at Alphonse, who is currently sitting on the couch reading a book, I slowly open the door, and make my leave, quietly closing it, and walking down the hall. I start a light jog, making my way to the lake, to figure out for myself just how real this whole thing really is. 


	3. Chapter 3

I stand at the edge of the dock, wondering if I’m about to make the right decision. This could completely calm me down and answer a few questions, or it could just make everything worse. I sit down at the dock, and stare into the water, weighing my options. I had decided to sneak out of the inn to find out if this is really real or not, but now that I’m here and about to do it, I’m not so sure. 

As I test, I decide to dip my finger into the water, quickly dipping it in, and then pulling it out, leaving a little more than a drop on my finger. I sit there, slightly tense, waiting for the energy feeling, and preparing to grow a tail and have to hurry into the water before anyone sees me. But nothing seems to happen. Maybe it was just a hallucination in the end. I look into the water again. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to dip my foot in. Taking one of my boots off, and placing it on the dock, I put my right foot into the water. The feeling of the water somehow clears my head, and the dizziness and fuzziness in my head is completely gone. I casually sit there, enjoying the feeling, when suddenly. 

I turn into water for a quick moment, and that damn tail is back. And yet I thought it was gone. Lovely. My tail hangs off the dock, the bottom fin at the surface of the water. I pinch myself to make sure that I’m not dreaming, and then I lower myself into the water, hoping that no one had seen me. The water feels different on my skin then it ever did before. Better could be a way to describe it, but I feel like natural would be a better word. I couldn’t explain it. I couldn’t put any words to the difference. But if one thing was certain, it was completely different to the normal feel of being in water. 

I stare at my tail for a moment, but then realize that I have no idea how to use it. Can I move it? And if I can, how? It does look like a fishtail, so wouldn’t that mean that I’m currently supposed to be in water? But now do I swim? I almost facepalm at myself for not thinking this one through. 

All of a sudden, I feel my tail twitch, along with several muscles inside of my tail, ones in spots and moving in ways that I could’ve never thought I would ever feel. For that quick second, I could tell that this thing was flexible, and I probably wouldn’t need to worry about bending it too far anyway. 

I make another attempt to move the tail, focusing on the areas that I had felt just a second ago. And it worked. The tail rose up, not too much, I lost focus and it dropped not long after. I could feel almost all the inner workings of the tail moving as my brain sent the signals to move it. It felt unnatural, yet natural at the same time. 

I move myself, slowly making it deeper into the lake. It’s a little tricky at first, but I start to get more use to it as I push myself out, further from the shore. I’m nervous, and I think it might be fair to say that I’m little scared. I guess you could say that curiosity has killed the cat on this one. 

I’m really starting to think this is a stupid idea now, and that I should just go back, but I’m not sure that I’m ready to go back to shore, and get an earful from Alphonse, and then have snuck out for pretty much nothing. So, I guess I might as well stay here, and figure a bit more of this out. 

My gut is telling me that I should go underwater, but I find myself not being so sure. I know for a face that I cannot breathe underwater, and my automail might prevent me from surfacing in time for me to breathe so I don’t pass out or something. Maybe if I stay close to the surface, I’ll be safe, and perfectly fine. I take a deep breath, and put my head underwater. 

Expecting to get a typical blurry view under water, I’m left completely surprised when everything is crystal clear. The water doesn’t impair my vision at all, the colour of the water merely tints everything lightly in that colour. I try to swim a little bit under to get a closer look, but it doesn’t work too well, and I hardly move. I quickly remember that my tail is a thing, and I make an attempt to kick it lightly, and I find myself almost propelled into the water. I end up going a lot deeper than I originally wanted to go, but I find myself mesmerized in the view of the plants swaying and the fish swimming around. 

Using my tail, I swim a little bit closer to the fish. Surprisingly, they don’t seem too bothered by my presence, and more interested in not crashing into me. They look pretty though, all of the colours moving around in the water, like little kids playing underwater in a pool. Except it lasts more then 10 seconds. 

I ponder on what to do now. I’m now under water, I should probably try to do something with my time, and try to at least somewhat figure this whole thing out. I try to think of something, when I remember where it all started. The weird pool. It had a tunnel that had led directly to the lake. Meaning that I could go back. Maybe even more easily like this. That place must have some answers to what is going on! 

I begin swimming through the water, moving the fin of my tail up and down as best as I can to move me through the water. I don’t think I’m doing it properly, considering it’s not exactly the most comfortable. But it is moving me, so I’m not really complaining right now. My gaze goes over to the island, but under the surface of the water, keeping an eye out for the entrance to that tunnel. As much as I kept trying to focus on searching for the tunnel entrance, I keep finding myself looking around at my surroundings, and sometimes I even find myself going into a blissful daze from the feeling of the water flowing against me as I swim. 

The water oddly enough feels completely natural against my skin; I could probably compare it to the feeling of air on a person. The water brushing against my head and making my hair seamlessly flow behind me actually feels relaxing to me. The scenery of everything around me, and the look of the sun shining into the water, creating perfect rays of sunlight that actually look really pretty when my sight is this clear under water, and I’m swimming among them. After a while of trying to not let myself go into my daze and stay focus, I almost can’t help it. And I fall into a blissful daze, just swimming around, admiring everything on me, and around me. Pretty much loosing every care and worry in the world. I feel happy, content, almost excited. Everything feels so comfortable and natural, it even didn’t feel too awkward to move my tail to swim seamlessly through the water...... 

Wait, that can’t be right. This shouldn’t feel so natural, especially my tail. I snap out of my daze with these thoughts, and I notice that I had been doing somethings without even thinking. I am still swimming, but my hands are positioned right in front of me, stretched out, with my hands on top of each other. I look behind me, and watch as my tail effortlessly goes up and down, almost like a wave. It feels a lot more comfortable then what I was doing before, so I try to memorize the feelings in the tail and how it’s moving so that I can do it again later once I stop. 

I stop swimming for a moment, and analyze my surroundings. I have no idea how far I went while I was in that daze, and whether it got me any closer to the tunnel or not. I’m still close to the shore of the island, and looking closely at part of the steep part of the shore, I see the tunnel, waiting for me to enter. 

I sigh in relief, happy and relieved that I’m right near the tunnel, and that I didn’t swim away from it by mistake. I take a deep breath, and I begin swimming towards the tunnel, hoping that on the other side, will be some answers. 

I suddenly stop swimming, and my breath get caught in my throat. I’m underwater. I shouldn’t be able to breathe underwater. And yet I am. But how? How long have I been breathing underwater? I start breathing heavily in panic, not knowing what to do. The logical answer would be to swim u to the surface and take a breath up there, but I’m already breathing just fine where I am. I haven’t drowned yet, and I’m breathing in heaps of seemingly air underwater, so I guess that says a few things. I take a few deep breaths, deciding to just be glad that I’m not dead yet, and to make my way to that pool. 

Once I’ve calmed down a little, I start swimming again, this time being a lot easier than the last time. I swim down to the tunnel, and enter it, the tunnel being big enough for me to easily go through. Once I get to the pool, I resurface, and I feel an odd feeling in my chest, making me start to cough. I’m not coughing for too long, and after that, I feel completely normal again. At least in my chest. 

I look around the cavern, and something about it seems different. More comfortable. More relaxing, I feel like I could stay here for hours just floating around. The relics seem to stand out more, especially the blue crystals. On top of all of that, I feel different. Different from when I first came here, and different from when I was swimming around in the like. It feels like something is resonating inside of me. Like some sort of attachment to this place. An attachment that feels like it’s so much deeper than I could ever expect. Like a sense of belonging that was created by something that I could never think of normally. It’s also like I’m in a place of importance. A special place that’s going to really matter to me or something. I just can’t find a single way to describe how I feel being in here. 

Taking a while to carefully inspect everything, I get the feeling that I’m probably not going to find answers in here. And although I’m finding myself feeling so relaxed in here, and a part of me wants to stay, I’m already going to get an earful from Alphonse for sneaking off, I should probably head back before I get an even bigger one. 

I go back underwater to go back through the tunnel, and I make it out in a decent amount of time, but my lungs start begging for air. Remembering that I was breathing underwater earlier, I carefully, and very cautiously take a small breath in. The minute I do so, the odd feeling that was in my chest comes back the m, and I resist the urge to start coughing. It goes way not even a moment later, and I find myself just floating there, calmly but not calmly doing the impossibly by breathing underwater while having a fishtail. 

I start to swim again, taking in the feelings and the sights as I start to head back to where I came from. I guess I’ll just have to a more secluded part of the shore and try to turn back there. Well, I think I can turn back to normal. Ugh, why don’t I think about this stuff beforehand. My heart beats quickly as I make my way over to the shore. I suppose I’m just going to wing it from here. 

Reaching the shore, I quickly find a place to pull myself onto the shore, and I go to the shore, and I drag myself onto the land. The area is nice and isolated from the rest of the beach nearby, almost completely surrounded by trees, and other bushes, in a way that it would be unlikely that someone would see me from a distance. 

And I have no way to dry myself off. Just great. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that either. I let out a sigh of annoyance, and use one of my hands to prop myself up. I look behind me, hoping that some random person won’t just walk in and see me. For some reason, my tail starts to sting, and I look at it, and see my hand hovering over top of it, and steam coming from my tail. I watch in shock as all the water on my tail completely dries off, and it doesn’t even take more than a few minutes before I turn back to normal. 

I stare at my hand, sure that the evaporating water was from me, but also not sure. That kind of thing shouldn’t be possible at all, and yet I’m seeing it with my own eyes. I decide to get up and head back to the inn, not wanting to worry Alphonse too much. Just as I’m getting up, I hear rustling from the bushes, and I see Alphonse walk into the small clearing. “Brother!” He says as he looks at me in surprise. He walks up to me. “Where were you? I’ve been looking everywhere!” 

I’m not sure what to tell him; ‘Oh, hey Al. Just so you know, I managed to turn into in some half fish thing, and have been swimming around for the last.... who knows how long. Oh yea, and by the way, I think I somehow managed to evaporate water really fast to dry myself off.’ Like hell, he’s going to believe me if I say that! He’d also probably get mad at me for not telling him, and then make me tell mustang or something. “I just went for a walk, that’s all.” I decide not to tell him for now. 

Alphonse sighs in annoyance. “Why were out on a walk for over 4 hours?” I was out there for over 4 hours? Well then.... “And you didn’t even tell me! You just sneak out of the inn room right after getting discharged from the hospital! Do you have any idea how worried I was? I thought that you might’ve gotten lost somewhere, or passed out again!!” He’s just about yelling at me now, both in anger, and in relief. 

I feel bad for making him worry about me so much. “I’m sorry Al. I just needed some air.” I pause for a moment, not really sure what to say to him. I think of something that isn’t completely a lie. “I just lost track of time.” 

Alphonse, looks at me, seeming concerned. “Brother.... Are you ok?” 

I nod. “Yea, I’m fine, just thinking...” I trail off. Am I ok? Honestly, I’m not sure. 

Alphonse takes a step towards me. “Is there something you’re not telling me?” He asks, sounding worried. 

I look at Alphonse. Yes, there is something I’m not telling him, but can I even say it? I highly doubt he’d believe me. He’d probably think I was making some stupid joke. I don’t even talk about anything fantasy like on a normal basis. He would probably think I’m nuts. I might as well come up with something, at least even if he does think I’m nuts, he’d probably understand somewhat. “I’ll bring it up later.” I say, walking towards him. “Let’s head back to the inn for now.” 

We both walk back to the inn, and I can’t help but think about what happened while I was in the water. Swimming around, the weird daze, and the pool in the cavern. Swimming around in that tail feel completely different to walking around, or swimming with two legs. The sights are completely different too, it kind of feels like you’re flying over top of tiny forests sometimes. 

But as confusing as it is, I can’t help but smile as I think about it. Because it really is really confusing, there’s no way to explain what’s going on in a scientific way, and it feels really weird and kind of strange to swim around in it. And with all of that, it’s probably fair to say that it’s a little scary. But I can’t help but admit, that in the end, it’s pretty damn cool. 


End file.
